Nielsen VideoScan/Home Media Magazine: Blu-ray/DVD/HD DVD Stats (Updated Weekly)

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 18th October 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 13.16% vs 86.85%

Blu-ray sales down 23.27% compared to last week, total spending: $25.09 million
DVD sales up 5.62% compared to last week, total spending: $165.63 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (October 26 - November 1 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom482210QWE/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

A quieter week, but still busy compared to just a few months ago. Yep, the holiday season has started, and there are some stellar releases coming up. But for this week, it was still mainly about releases from the past few wee, or rather, still about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It again topped the sales charts, selling 3 times as many copies as the second place The Proposal.

The other new releases in the top 10 were Drag Me to Hell at 3rd (selling about half as many copies as The Proposal) and Land of the Lost at 4th.

The rest of the titles were X-Men Origins: Wolverine at 5th, Monsters vs Aliens at 6th, Wizard of Oz still doing well at 7th, The Dark Knight at 8th, still in the top 10 nearly a year after release (thanks to a price cut), Pinocchio at 9th (some Snow White related sales?) and Year One at 10th.

Market Share:

Of the new releases, The Proposal despite being the second most popular Blu-ray title, only managed 6.74% market share, again highlighting where Blu-ray is still weak. Drag Me to Hell, a title a little bit better suited to the Blu-ray market, sold only half as many copies as The Proposal, but had a 21.55% market share. A little bit of simple math tells me that counting both DVD and Blu-ray sales, The Proposal sold more than 6 times as many copies as Drag Me to Hell, and it's these titles that Blu-ray has to do well in as well in order to become fully mainstream. Land of the Lost, another new release, managed 12.61%, which is better, but still way below the average for a blockbuster Blu-ray release that is in the action/horror/sci-fi/thriller categories (ie. movies for male audiences).

The Dark Knight led the market share charts at 39%, followed by Pinocchio at 28%.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom482210QWE/index.php?startid=7

[autumnkid2000]

Someone at UltimateDisney posted the first week sales of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (10/06-10/11). It sold 4,104,321 copies during the first week. Remember Disney's decision to place the same discs (2 Blu-rays and 1 DVD) in two different casings (Blu-ray and DVD cases)? It says that 70.56% of Snow White sold were in the DVD packaging (2,869,009 copies) and that 29.44% were in the Blu-Ray packaging (1,208,312 copies).

Do you think that if the DVD and Blu-ray were released in the same week, this would be the same market share?

[admin]

Thanks for the stats - they're interesting.

If you have a good sized Blu-ray collection, you may opt for the smaller Blu-ray packaging so it all fits. But then again, people might be just picking up the first version they saw, or picked up the packaging that looked the nicest to them. Or some, maybe even most, just don't care.

Based on Pinocchio's numbers back in March, with market share of around 15%, add to that the growth in Blu-ray sales, I would gather that the Snow White market share to be upwards of 20% had the DVD only version being made available.

Snow White was the top home video seller of that week (including all DVD and Blu-ray sales), so you have to conclude that a large number of people bought the movie without probably having a Blu-ray player, or not caring about the Blu-ray version in the package. There's comparable data available for recently released Blu-ray exclusives like Gladiator, which also topped that week's Blu-ray sales charts, but only finished 7th in the all format charts.

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 25th October 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 15.57% vs 84.43%

Blu-ray sales up 54.88% compared to last week, total spending: $38.86 million
DVD sales up 27.19% compared to last week, total spending: $210.66 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (November 2 - 8 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom781135SPL/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

The first of this year's major releases was this week's top selling title. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen outsold the number two title, Snow White, by a ratio of 10 to 1, which itself outsold the third placed title by 5 to 1 (and so from first to third, the ratio was 50:1). But even with these stats, the Blu-ray market share wasn't as high as you would expect. To be clear, from a dollar perspective, Blu-ray sales were at their highest point this year, beating the previous best set by Watchmen. Both were still short of the record set by The Dark Knight almost a year ago, in which sales topped $60 million for the week, compared to "only" $38 million this week. But we'll talk about market share a bit later. The Dark Knight figures were calculated using a different method back in 2008, but even the revised figures of something like $47 million was still above what Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen managed this week.

Not surprisingly, none of the other titles in the top 10 were new releases. This is because studios tend to avoid major releases, for fear of diluting the impact of these minor releases.

The Proposal was the aforementioned third placed title, followed by X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first Transformers movie, Monsters vs Aliens at 6th, The Dark Knight, Drag Me to Hell, the now discounted and below $10 Terminator 3 and Land of the Lost at 10th.

Market Share:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen debuted in the market share charts at 3rd, with 25.73% market share, an above average result, but below that of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (26.8%) and quite a bit below that of Watchmen (35.52%). This is why I mentioned above that the market share stats was a relative disappointment. The total sales market share did a bit better at 15.57%, but it also did not manage to beat Iron Man of more than a year ago, or Watchmen this year (or even Snow White from a couple of weeks ago). You might argue that all of the other movies that did better were also better movies, and that probably had something to do with it. Or more likely it's because the DVD version sold in great numbers too, and so the Blu-ray market share couldn't go much higher. It's worth noting that The Dark Knight's Blu-ray market share was also quite low during the first week of release, and that was all down to DVD sales being high, rather than Blu-ray sales being low.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom781135SPL/index.php?startid=11

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 1st November 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 13.47% vs 86.53%

Blu-ray sales down 31.76% compared to last week, total spending: $26.52 million
DVD sales down 19.16% compared to last week, total spending: $170.30 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (November 9 - 15 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom345611SCX/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

It's a week of consolidations, as the highs of the previous week thanks to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen fall off a bit, but it still managed to nearly outsell second place Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs by 2:1, which did not do enough on Blu-ray (compared to DVD) to lift the market share much higher.

The week's other new releases included Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure at 4th, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan at 5th and Orphan at 6th.

The rest of the top 10 were previously released titles including Snow White at 3rd, X-Men Origins: Wolverine at 7th, The Proposal at 8th, Monsters vs Aliens at 9th and The Dark Knight at 10th.

Market Share:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's Blu-ray market shared dropped to 23.72%, from 25.73% of last week, but it is still impressive that more than 1 in 5 copies of the movie was sold on Blu-ray, despite Blu-ray hardware ownership numbers being nowhere near this high. What was more impressive was Battlestar Galactica: The Plan's ratio, at 25.30%, a TV show that very much appeals to the core Blu-ray demographic (read as the core PS3 demographic). Of the week's other new releases in the top 10 sales charts, Tinker Bell did poorly with only 9.16%, while Orphan did slightly better, but still at only 10.19%. The Dark Knight was once again top of the market share charts with 43.25% market share thanks to recent price cuts.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom345611SCX/index.php?startid=13

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 8th November 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 14.32% vs 85.68%

Blu-ray sales up 5.87% compared to last week, total spending: $28.06 million
DVD sales down 1.39% compared to last week, total spending: $167.93 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (November 16 - 22 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom808955QBB/index.php?startid=3

Top 10:

There was a big release this week, the third most popular in 2009, but sales remained relatively flat, with Blu-ray up a little being offset by DVD being down a little. The big release in question was G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Second was the remade The Taking of Pelham 123, but it managed less than a third of sales as G.I. Joe.

For the other new releases, there was the catalogue favourite Forrest Gump debuting at 6th, the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest at 7th, Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One at 9th.

The rest of the top 10 were previously released discs, including further consolidation by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to 3rd place, Snow White fell to 4th, last week's biggest new release Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, fell to 5th.

Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure was 8th and The Dark Knight remained at 10th.

Market Share:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's Blu-ray market shared remained at 23% to give Blu-ray sales a boost. G.I. Joe debuted at 27.51%, a very good result for any first week release. Less popular was The Taking of Pelham 123, which still did relatively well with 21.14% of the market share. The classic North by Northwest, the 50th Anniversary edition, was top of the market share charts with 66.6%, showing that classics are also attractive to Blu-ray buyers. Forrest Gump did not rank as it was a Blu-ray exclusive release.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom808955QBB/index.php?startid=9

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 15th November 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 16.76% vs 83.24%

Blu-ray sales up 46.22% compared to last week, total spending: $41.03 million
DVD sales up 21.34% compared to last week, total spending: $203.76 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (November 23 - 29 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom155378GHB/index.php?startid=2

Top 10:

Another record week for Blu-ray, the biggest since The Dark Knight back at the end of 2008, and once again it's largely thanks to one title. Up was the week's definitive top seller, selling more than 5 times as many copies as the, also related, Blu-ray exclusive re-release of Monsters Inc., which came second above last week's number one, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (which only sold one tenth the number of copies as Up).

And as with tradition, other notable releases are usually absent in a week that contains a hit release like Up, with the only new release being The Ugly Truth, which came 6th.

The rest of the top 10 were all previously released titles, and quite a few of them were animated titles. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was 4th, Snow White 5th, Heat was 7th, The Taking of Pelham 123 8th, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Monsters vs Aliens rounded off the list. Just missing out on a top 10 spot was Cars, another animated title.

Market Share:

I mentioned Cars above because it also topped the market share charts, with 58.55% of all sales belonging to Blu-ray. The Ultimate Cut of Watchmen was also high with 54.31%.

Of the new releases, Up was "up" there with 23.71%, a good number for an animated kids film (which usually does poorly on Blu-ray, at least poorly when compared to live action films). The Ugly Truth got wiped out at only 6.47%, which suggest that the studios' strategy of clearing the week of new releases when there's a big one is a sound one.

Heavy discounting during the holiday season has seen some Blu-ray titles fall below DVD prices, and this all helped to make the Blu-ray market share rise to the second highest of 2009 (the highest was for the week Snow White was released, but it's slightly unfair to compare that week to this one since Snow White was exclusively released in a Blu-ray/DVD package, unlike Up, which is available as a DVD only release).

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom155378GHB/index.php?startid=10

[dr_ml422]

So it's steadily increasing which is a good sign. Sony I guess is taking w/e losses and putting it all on the end results, hopefully see blu-ray make a solid stance. Will they chuck it, if even not wholly after the 5 or so year period you posted before which they set as their goal? I don't think they would, if they've come this far w/so much invested and loss, but anything's possible. Do you think it will ever replace DVDs at some point, or just be a alternative format like all the other options available now?

[admin]

Probably due to Thanksgiving, no weekly Blu-ray sales stats, but just like the same time last year, there's a year to date summary.

For the calendar year ending 15th November 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 9.81% vs 90.19%

Blu-ray sales year to date total spending: $865.89 million
DVD sales year to date total spending: $7,957.93 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (November 30 - December 6 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom366570DFV/index.php?startid=3

As HMM's stats for 2008 and 2009 have changed in the way they've been calculated, some additional calculation is needed to to a proper comparison between now and last year. DVD sales are said to be down 7.54% from the previous year, which made 2008's DVD sales (to the same point) $8,606.89 million. By the same token, Blu-ray sales are up 137.56% from the previous year, which made 2008's Blu-ray sales (to the same point) $364.49 million.

Here are the updated stats for 2008 (up to Nov 16 2008), using the same metrics as the 2009 numbers:

For the calendar year ending 16th November 2008, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 4.06% vs 94.94%

Blu-ray sales year to date total spending: $364.49 million
DVD sales year to date total spending: $8,606.89 million

It is then very easy to make a comparison. Blu-ray's market share has more than doubled in the same period.

In this aspect, Blu-ray's market share went from 4% a year ago to now nearly 10%, that's a healthy 150% increase. At this rate, we could see Blu-ray hit 20% by the same time next year, if not higher. The fall on DVD revenue has not been entirely made up by the rise in Blu-ray revenue, but it isn't as far off - just $147.56 million away from 2008's total figures in an economic downturn is not bad, and I think part of that has to do with Blu-ray being less affected by economic conditions, as it is not a format that appeals to only the budget conscious.

In the same issue of HMM, there are also the year to date top 20 Blu-ray movie sales and market share stats. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen leads the chart, selling one and a half times more than second place Quantum of Solace, which just managed to pip The Dark Knight.

Up, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Snow White, Watchmen, Twilight, Taken and Transformers make up the rest of the top 10, as expected.

In terms of market share, Watchmen achieved the best result with 35%, and every other title in the top 20 was over 20%.

You can see the full top 20 most popular Blu-ray movies of 2009 so far, and the market share figures, here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom366570DFV/index.php?startid=13

[dr_ml422]

I think for me to get a quality download off a alternative format, I would have to upgrade from DSL. Sometimes during heavy traffic I can't even get a steady picture from the Sports sites. Now, unless these alternative sites have their own channels/bandwidths to compensate or at least improve what one is using w/their ISP, then that would be awesome. I don't know much about that. I do know however at th rate some of my regular DL'ds go, it would take 4ever to DL'd a flic. Verizon has set my maximum DL'd speed at 124-128 or so mbs, even though I supposedly have a 1mps. connection. They saved their behind by actually stating that could happen in their policies agreement on-line. So I'm as well as others am getting robbed no matter what.

[admin]

TiVo here in Australia has deals with several ISPs for bandwidth free downloads for their digital TV/movie download service, and even a free movie every week from Blockbusters.

Actually buying digital movies (for keeps) still isn't a big thing, it's mostly just renting for now (like Netflix) or limited viewing/on demand. Digital rental growth is huge at the moment, and I think that will eventually affect DVD sales if it hasn't already, but it shouldn't hurt Blu-ray as it's aimed at a totally different market segment (ie. those willing to pay more to own and keep movies of the highest quality). That is until bandwidth gets fast and free enough to allow for a dozen 25 GB movies to be downloaded monthly without a huge bill to go along with it.

[dr_ml422]

Once Blu-ray gets to the point of affordability, they'll be in the same boat DVDs are regarding sales. I mean the blanks, drives etc... All those buying these flics today will definitely think twice if they're into digital video like we are. It'll be just 1 click away, and back to the drawing board again. Which is simple. Make it affordable, and accommodating as well. For Pete's sake you can only store so many physical discs.

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 29th November 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 12.33% vs 87.67%

Blu-ray total spending: $69.06 million
DVD total spending: $491.10 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (December 7-13 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom789954SDV/index.php?startid=3

Top 10:

The Thanksgiving Black Friday sales, and the release of two of the year's biggest titles, made this a week to remember for Blu-ray, beating the previous weekly record set for the week ending 14th December 2008, when The Dark Knight was released. The model used to calculate these figures from HMM and Nielsen VideoScan were revised earlier in the year, and some of the 2008 figures had over represented the Blu-ray sales stats, including the week in which TDK was released (some of my previous posts incorrectly compared figures using the two different calculation methods). This actually means that last week's unpublished numbers, was the actual record breaker, and this week managed to better it even more. The last sales week's figures were unpublished due to the Thanksgiving holidays and the shortened week, and so there are no "week to week" comparison numbers above for this week.

The two titles in question are Star Trek and Angels & Demons. The sales charts will show Angels & Demons beating Star Trek, but this has to do with last week's unpublished stats (week ending 22nd November), the first week that Star Trek was released. But given the second week sales results of Star Trek only narrowly lost to Angels & Demons's first week showing, by 0.79 index points (out of 100), it suggest that Star Trek did impressively during the first week of release.

What was also surprising was that despite the huge Blu-ray market share Star Trek managed to earn (not surprising, because from home theater geeks to PS3 aficionados, Star Trek is a must have movie on Blu-ray), and the not too shabby results from Angels & Demons, overall Blu-ray market share should have been a lot higher than the 12% it eventually got, lower than during the weeks of other major releases. This was largely due to Black Friday sales, which bought out the masses and with DVDs being discounted to as low as $2, DVD sales naturally rose. The same pattern was observed last year as well. For the unpublished week, Blu-ray market share was actually 18.32%, which would make it officially the best week ever for Blu-ray.

As for the rest of the top 10 charts, all the expected titles are there, although Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was missing.

The complete top 10 chart:

1. Angels & Demons
2. Star Trek
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
4. Up
5. Monsters vs Aliens
6. Fast & Furious
7. The Dark Knight
8. I Am Legend
9. The Taking of Pelham 123
10. The Departed

Market Share:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine had an amazing 73.06% market share, meaning nearly all sales of the movie was on Blu-ray, thanks to price cuts. Star Trek did 38% in the unpublished week's results, and maintained a high 33% even during the second week of sales. Angels & Demons' debut was at the now norm of 24.77%.

With these high market share ratings, you might be even further surprised at the low overall Blu-ray market share. But if you think about the kind of titles and the range of titles being discounted over Black Friday, especially on DVD, then it's more of a case of many different titles selling in lower quantities, than Blu-ray's few big titles selling in huge quantities, that makes up the overall figures. For examples, Twilight, number 20 on the market share charts, only had 3.84% market share over the Black Friday sales for the Blu-ray version, suggesting that the DVD version sold much better, but probably in lower quantities than say Star Trek. It's these kind of titles that are still keeping DVD in the game, although with the debut market shares figures getting larger, we might see next year a debut title that sells just as well on Blu-ray as it does on DVD.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom789954SDV/index.php?startid=11

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 6th December 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 14.85% vs 85.15%

Blu-ray sales down 32.23% compared to last week, total spending: $46.80 million
DVD sales up 45.35% compared to last week, total spending: $268.40 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (December 14-20 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom287769GHJ/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

The Star Trek inspired sales records have now subsided, and even the release of Terminator Salvation was not able to make up for the difference, although Blu-ray dropped at a slower rate than DVD for the week.

Terminator Salvation did outsell the second place Night at the Museum 2 by nearly 3:1, but Star Trek still managed to easily get 3rd place and only a couple of index points short of second place. Star Trek is the "The Dark Knight" for 2009 it seems, unless Half-Blood Prince can pull off a surprise this week (figures for it available next week).

The rest of the top 10 were all previously released titles, and Transformers 2 makes a comeback to the top 10 after missing out last week.

The complete top 10 chart:

1. Terminator Salvation
2. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
3. Star Trek
4. Up
5. Angels & Demons
6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
7. Gladiator
8. Braveheart
9. The Dark Knight
10. Quantum of Solace

Market Share:

Terminator Salvation did extremely well on Blu-ray, getting 42.24% market share. With the right titles, Blu-ray should be getting over 50% market share for the first week of release during 2010, although Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian not even making the top 20 (being under 21.52%) suggest that the "average" market share for first week release is still well short of 50%, although much higher than the 10-12% at this point in 2008.

The trend is that for certain titles that no longer sells well on DVD and if the title is one that consumers deem to be better on Blu-ray, then the majority of sales for this movie would be on Blu-ray. This explains why Quantum of Solace, while hardly a hot title anymore, managed to continue to sell well on Blu-ray and earned a massive 72% market share. The same can be said of Gladiator and Braveheart, and it is clear that many consumers are keen to upgrade their DVD collections to Blu-ray, but mostly for hits and again titles that they want the definitive HD version for.

There are still a couple of hit releases left for 2009, including the aforementioned Harry Potter movie, plus The Hangover, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9 right at the end of the year.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom287769GHJ/index.php?startid=13

Year to Year Comparison

The stats for the week ending 7th December 2008 are as follows, after being adjusted to the new calculation method (see "Important Note" section in this post) used for the majority of 2009:

Blu-ray vs DVD: 5.2% vs 94.8%

Blu-ray: $18.21 million
DVD: $332.01 million

By revenue, Blu-ray's market share has nearly tripled. Total spending for the week was $350.22 million in 2008 and $315.2 million in 2009, a shortfall of $35.02 million. While Blu-ray revenue increased 157% year on year, the increase still needs to be more if it is to offset the 19% drop in DVD sales.

[dr_ml422]

Guess they're really sticking to Blu-ray for as long as possible until it takes like DVD. As of now I see no 5yr. daedline for the ceased marketing of Blu-ray. They still however have remained firm on the PS3 price of $299.99.